Detroit Speed Inc's Speed 1 Kit - Faux To Pro

How to Make a Camaro that Looks Like a Handler, Actually Walk the Walk

We hate to use the term “poseur” since it has such a negative connotation, but let’s face it; a lot of Camaros out there are given the Pro Touring treatment in looks only. After all, it’s a lot cheaper to just toss on some wide rollers and slam the stance, than to actually make a car handle better. And to be fair, if that’s all you want, then building a Faux Touring Camaro falls into the “no harm, no foul” category.

3/23

But it really isn’t that hard to drop the pretense and get your Camaro handling as good as it looks. In fact, it doesn’t even need to cost a small fortune. The key is to choose quality parts that address the handling shortcomings of early Camaros. And if these parts are simple bolt-on deals, then even more money is saved on the installation side of the ledger. Besides, looking good is nice, but, trust us, having a capable handler is the icing that makes the cake that much more tasty.

Our test Camaro for this exercise belongs to Racepak’s Roger Conley. He’s had the ’67 for a long time, and while it has the typical Pro Touring look, replete with 335/35-17 rear, and 275/35-17 front tires, his deal used to be drag racing, so the suspension was pretty much stock.

These days he would like to hit the local autocross, so we ordered up Detroit Speed Inc’s Speed Kit 1, which is their entry-level, bolt-on suspension kit. After all, why just talk the talk when you can do a little walkin’ as well?

Track Tested

21/23

Shiny new parts are cool, but we wanted to know how much better the car would handle. The Faux Touring ’67 was ran through our slalom course and, for reference, we decided to stack the numbers up against a bone-stock ’11 SS Camaro.

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Detroit Speed Inc's Speed 1 Kit - Faux To Pro

In our 420-foot slalom the “stock” Camaro managed a best time of 6.45 seconds (44.4 mph). According to our test driver Nick Licata the car felt twitchy with very little driver feedback. Last year we baselined a stock ’11 SS Camaro, which knocked down a best time of 6.16 seconds (46.6 mph) in the slalom on factory rubber. That may not sound like much of a difference, but trust us, it’s huge! Rolling on the same rubber, but with the new Detroit Speed Inc. parts installed, we headed back to our El Toro test venue. After a few warm-up laps, Licata started pushing the Camaro to its limit and we were eventually rewarded with a best time of 6.09 seconds, better than a new SS Camaro and a huge improvement over the OEM parts. Nick also mentioned the ride quality had improved greatly and he received much more feedback from the car on corner entry, and more importantly, corner exit. That’s the difference between spinning out and being able to save it when you are driving on the edge.

1. Aside from bigger binders, the suspension on our Faux Touring ’67 Camaro was stock. At some point, someone tossed on a slightly bigger front sway bar, but we doubt it helped a whole lot.

2. No need to dwell on taking the old junk off the car. The toughest part was busting the upper and lower ball joints loose after removing the stock shocks. Since we didn’t have a fork, we simply loosened up the nut and then applied a few hard whacks with a large hammer.

3. With the ball joints popped free, but still attached to the spindle, we placed a pole jack under the lower control arm and then removed the castle nuts securing the arms to the spindle. With this done, we slowly lowered the pole jack until the spindle was clear. Once the spindle was out of the way, we continued to lower the arm and relieve the tension on the coil spring until the spring could be safely removed.

4. To help get the Camaro leaning into corners properly and give it a stylish stance, we ditched the cut, stock springs and went with some 2-inch drop DSE coils (PN 031103). These should perform great without killing the ride quality.

5. With the springs out of the way, we then went ahead and unbolted the upper control arms from the frame.

6. The Detroit Speed Inc. lower control arms (PN 031201) are tubular works of art. To make life easier, they ship complete with lower ball joints, steering stops, jounce bumpers installed, and are ready to rock. Performance features include thick-wall tubular construction with gussets and crossbracing for added strength. The bushings are Delrin with steel housings and crush tubes. Since we were keeping it simple, these were designed for traditional coil springs, but they also come set up for coilovers.

7. We noticed a little powder paint on the threads for the shock mounting holes, so we ran a tap through to clean them up a bit.

8. We utilized the same pole jack method used to remove the stock coil springs to install the new Detroit Speed 2-inch drop coils. Again, the key here is to go slow. If you don’t have a lift and a pole jack, then you can get the same effect by using an extra floor jack to raise the arm and compress the spring.

9. Like the lower arms, the uppers (PN 030101) are equally beautiful to look at. Detroit Speed has improved the suspension geometry by increasing camber gain and improving roll camber. They’ve also been computer modeled and all the components have undergone finite element analysis. They come loaded with Detroit Speed-designed aluminum/Delrin bushings, which are far stiffer and more precise compared to stock. The bushings also have CNC-machined beveled stainless washers and nylock nuts. The TIG-welded arms feature billet ball joint pockets for increased strength and come fully assembled.

10. The upper arms have CNC stainless steel cross-shafts that incorporate Detroit Speed’s Caster Tuner Bushings. These aluminum bushings adjust caster by moving the upper control arm fore or aft for more or less caster without having to add alignment shims. Two sets of Caster Tuner Bushings are included with the arms.

11. Just because you don’t drop big coin for fancy coilover shocks doesn’t mean you have to settle for sketchy performance. These Koni replacement shocks (PN 031002) are tuned to DSE specifications and bolt in just like a stock shock. Unlike the stockers, these pieces are rebound-adjustable and improve both ride and handling.

12. Looking down at the top of the shock, you can see the hole in the shaft where tuning adjustments can be made. The kit also included small black caps to cover the shaft and keep out debris.

13. The Speed Kit also included a 11⁄8-inch diameter hollow antiroll bar (PN 031401). All the hardware, such as greaseable polyurethane bushings and endlinks were included, and the bar (with a roll rate of 1,531 lb/in) was optimized by Detroit Speed specifically for this kit.

14. The new Detroit Speed rear multi-leaf springs have a rate of 175 lb/in and incorporate a 3-inch drop. According to Detroit Speed, what sets their leaf springs apart from the others is that these provide excellent handling without sacrificing ride quality. Their tapered leaf design and anti-friction pads really help smooth out the ride. They came with rubber bushings installed, but we had Detroit Speed’s poly bushing kit, so the rubber pieces needed to be persuaded out with a hammer and large socket.

15. Per the Detroit Speed instruction sheet, we applied a liberal amount of super grease and then gently tapped the new polyurethane bushings into place.

16. The last step was to grease and tap into place the metal sleeves. The heavy-duty polyurethane bushing and shackle kit included spring eye bushings, shackle bushings, zinc-plated heavy-duty steel shackles, bolts, and lock nuts.

17. To complement the adjustable front Koni shocks, we picked up a set of rebound-adjustable rear Koni shocks (PN 041302). These have firmer valvings than the original, underdamped factory shocks and were a direct bolt-in.

In our 420-foot slalom the “stock” Camaro managed a best time of 6.45 seconds (44.4 mph). According to our test driver Nick Licata the car felt twitchy with very little driver feedback. Last year we baselined a stock ’11 SS Camaro, which knocked down a best time of 6.16 seconds (46.6 mph) in the slalom on factory rubber. That may not sound like much of a difference, but trust us, it’s huge!

Rolling on the same rubber, but with the new Detroit Speed Inc. parts installed, we headed back to our El Toro test venue. After a few warm-up laps, Licata started pushing the Camaro to its limit and we were eventually rewarded with a best time of 6.09 seconds, better than a new SS Camaro and a huge improvement over the OEM parts. Nick also mentioned the ride quality had improved greatly and he received much more feedback from the car on corner entry, and more importantly, corner exit. That’s the difference between spinning out and being able to save it when you are driving on the edge.